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Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

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Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#141

Post by clbrook »

bentt wrote: post #116

Been a pro gamedev for 20+ years. You have a born game designer on your hands. It is important to not assume this means they are super interested in programming. They may be, but game design is its own thing. HN will skew you towards programming first, naturally. Check these out: - Adventure Game Studio ( https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ ) - Twine ( https://twinery.org/ ) And these have more visual ways of prog…

Another option for tabletop games is printing with The Game Crafter: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#142

Post by weinzierl »

Godot, hands down. I used it with my then 12 year old to recreate a game that she used to play with her friends. I was pretty smooth sailing and the result was better than we expected, so we plan to release it in the winter.

We don't expect a lot of downloads or to make any money from it and that is not the point. The goal was to produce a minimal game completely DIY and from scratch. For the first version we created everything ourselves, including the assets. For the version we plan to release we will have a couple of select bought assets, but it was a good path to start with our own creations.

A not to be underestimated bonus is that GDScript is similar enough to Python that in my opinion learning it is useful beyond Godot and game development.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#143

Post by keiferski »

I think it’s very smart of you to only start with a simple game builder and not assume this means your child is “born to be a game designer” or interested in programming. Most kids like video games and I imagine video game designer tops the list of jobs kids want to have when they grow up, right next to YouTuber.

The question is whether that interest is actually a lifelong one. In my case, I applied to some degree programs for video game design, but ended up going to something else entirely. This turned out to be a very good thing, as I slowly lost interest in gaming over the next decade, as is natural for a lot of people, I think. Nowadays I still enjoy the occasional game, but would never consider making it my career. Had I assumed that my teenage interest in gaming was a deeper lifelong one, I think I’d have made some poor decisions in terms of education, jobs, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#144

Post by archargelod »

WillAdams wrote: post #99

Do you have a Nintendo Switch? I bought: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/game-builder-gara... and gave it to a co-worker's kid who enjoyed it quite a bit and said: >This is the greatest game ever!

I could also recommend Fuze4 and SmileBASIC for Nintendo Switch.

They're a lot more advanced, essentially each has it's own scripting language + code editor + a lot of quality assets.

I know the reputation of Basic, but SmileBASIC is using more modern iteration of the language, it's not your BASIC from commodore or dos. I also find their documentation and overall number of available functions exceptional.

Fuze4 has a nice community, they also have a youtube channel with tutorials and competitions.

They all have a special place in my heart, because these 3 apps is how I started my programming hobby, before moving to Lua and, recently, to Nim.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#145

Post by gcr »

Here’s an unconventional choice: grab a copy of the old RPG Maker XP and let them at it. Most of the difficulty is selecting and arranging art assets.

There are scripts, but the language syntax is all controlled by button presses and dialog boxes, so it’s difficult to screw up.

If your kiddo is more programming-inclined, PICO-8 is self contained.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#146

Post by eterpstra »

Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #95

This is a surprisingly crowded space. Aside from the big names like Scratch, Blockly, Roblox and (to an extent) Minecraft Education. There are heaps of projects out there created by educators who wanted to improve their own course. One particular example I was quite impressed with was Blockly -> Unity: https://app.code-it-studio.de/course/step/4/44 I've worked in this space a lot: professional game development, led E…

> > It's disheartening for kids when the thing they've worked hard on simply isn't fun — particularly when they share it with friends and are met with, at best, a shrug.

An easy way around this is to have kids include their friends as characters. Even if it's just a name and reasonable facsimile. And add some silly humor.

Yet another run and jump platformer game with a made-up character is going to be boring. A platformer where Billy from down the street farts jelly beans every time he jumps will probably get a few playthoughs and shares.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#148

Post by snarf21 »

bentt wrote: post #116

Been a pro gamedev for 20+ years. You have a born game designer on your hands. It is important to not assume this means they are super interested in programming. They may be, but game design is its own thing. HN will skew you towards programming first, naturally. Check these out: - Adventure Game Studio ( https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ ) - Twine ( https://twinery.org/ ) And these have more visual ways of prog…

I agree with this other advice. Do "tabletop" first. It doesn't have to be fancy, even just notecards or paper. You can iterate very quickly on the core game loop and "finding the fun". If you do want something fancier than just paper and words, a great option is printing on full page sticker paper and then attach that to chipboard (you can get it cheap online) and then just cut it out. You have a game that feels a lot more real than just notecards. There are lots of online resources for fast prototyping of card and board games. There are lots of Discords around game design and a lot of game conventions have a "prototype" area where designers showcase their games to get feedback and improve them. There are podcasts like Ludology and Building the Game to help give more theory of game design dicussions. (If you are US based, look up Unpub, Protospiel, etc...)

(I design card and board games as a hobby, the industry is very friendly and loves to mentor!)

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#149

Post by bloopernova »

n1b0m wrote: post #105
yarone wrote: post #34

Roblox studio. My son is a sound designer for some of the top games there. He's also learning programming in Lua for Roblox platform. It is a small community of mostly kids aged 15-25 as far as I can tell. It doesn't seem like any professional adult game developers are part of the community (I got an inside view when I took my son to RDC this year). The top game developers are making millions of dollars per year (the…

Pretty disturbing reading about predatory behaviour on Roblox: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-roblox-pedophile-pro...

Good god that article shows how immoral roblox's owner is. They also seem to be very ignorant about online abuse, probably intentionally.

Re: Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?

#150

Post by ido »

bentt wrote: post #116

Been a pro gamedev for 20+ years. You have a born game designer on your hands. It is important to not assume this means they are super interested in programming. They may be, but game design is its own thing. HN will skew you towards programming first, naturally. Check these out: - Adventure Game Studio ( https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ ) - Twine ( https://twinery.org/ ) And these have more visual ways of prog…

GameMaker is also a good option, it even has a scratch-like visual programming language (but also a more conventional text based language).
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